Aoki Quits Twitter

When it comes to trash talk and taunting, Shinya Aoki
can dish it out. But it appears the Dream lightweight champion can
no longer take the barrage of online ridicule over his most recent
loss.

On Thursday, Aoki shut down his personal account on social
networking site Twitter, @waoki, following an onslaught of insults
and mockery from fans of Yuichiro
Nagashima. Aoki was brutally knocked out by the K-1 Max
kickboxer in their mixed rules bout at
K-1 Dynamite: The Power of Courage 2010 on Dec. 31 in Saitama,
Japan.

The rules of Aoki’s match with Nagashima called for one
three-minute kickboxing round, followed by a five-minute mixed
martial arts round. Predictably, grappling specialist Aoki was on
the defensive for much of the first period. The “Tobikan Judan”
clinched, ducked, ran, and even dropkicked to avoid Nagashima’s
strikes. At the start of the second stanza, Aoki rushed across the
ring and shot for a takedown, only to be crushed by a jumping knee
from Nagashima which knocked Aoki out just four seconds into the
round.

A cosplayer who almost always appears in public dressed as a female
anime character, Nagashima possesses a rabid online fan base
comprised of many other cosplay and anime enthusiasts. Those fans
jumped on the opportunity to mock Aoki continually after the New
Year’s Eve loss, on both Twitter and message boards.

“I think I’m done with Twitter,” Aoki wrote plainly before deleting
the account, adding that he would continue to communicate with fans
through Japanese social networking service Mixi.